With traditional time division multiplexing (TDM) telephone calls, each call is assigned a dedicated circuit having a defined amount of bandwidth. In an operator services environment handling TDM-based telephony calls, each workstation will have fixed TDM connections to carry voice between the operator services telephony switch and the operator position. When the fixed TDM connections, such as T1, T3, and OC-3 connections, are lost, the operator positions physically connected to those failed connections cease to function. All other operator positions connected to functioning connections remain unaffected by the failures of the other connections. When the failed connections are restored, the non-functioning operator positions regain their functionality.
Given the ever-increasing reliability of packet-switched networks, the TDM connections between the operator services switch and the operator positions are incorporating voice-over-packet communications. In such an environment, the actual physical connections are shared between all of the operator positions instead of being individually connected and dedicated to single operator positions. With voice-over-packet, if some but not all of the underlying physical connections are lost, the total bandwidth available to be shared by all of the associated operator positions is reduced, but the ability for the operator positions to communicate with the corresponding operator services switch remains via the physical connections that remain functional. When the bandwidth between the operator positions and the operator services switch is reduced, performance of the system will drop due to increase in packet loss, latency, and jitter. Thus, instead of certain operator positions simply becoming inoperable as in a TDM environment, the quality of service for all of the operator positions in a voice-over-packet system will degrade when physical connections are lost. When the quality of service drops, voice quality is reduced, calls can be dropped, and the operator positions may be dropped from service as a result.
In addition to operator services environments, many organizations, such as colleges and corporations, either currently or in the future will support telephony and streaming media services for multiple users on a campus over a limited-bandwidth connection in a packet-based environment. When some but not all of the underlying physical connections fail, overall bandwidth is reduced and overall system performance for any particular individual may be reduced to the point where voice or media sessions degrade to unacceptable levels or cannot be maintained at all given the multiple attempts from the various users to use the limited bandwidth. Further, increases in demand exceeding allocated or available bandwidth result in diminished system performance. As such, there is a need for a way to decrease the amount of bandwidth required by each user for their telephony or streaming media services when bandwidth is temporarily limited or otherwise insufficient for demand. There is a further need for users to return to using their normal amount of bandwidth once the physical connections are restored and full system bandwidth is available.